A human rights group, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP, has said the order of Justice Taiwo Taiwo of the Federal High Court in Ado-Ekiti, which ordered the unfreezing of the accounts of Governor Ayodele Fayose may not be of any benefit to the governor.
Justice Taiwo had on Tuesday ordered the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to unfreeze the bank accounts of Fayose, which the anti-graft agency froze while investigating corruption allegations against the governor.
SERAP, in a statement on Wednesday by its Executive Director, Mr. Adetokunbo Mumuni, argued that the EFCC might not unfreeze Fayose’s accounts since Justice Taiwo is a judge of a coordinate jurisdiction with Justice Mohammed Idris of the Lagos State High Court, who granted the EFCC the order to freeze Fayose’s accounts.
SERAP accused Fayose of engaging in judicial forum-shopping by going before Justice Taiwo to get a unfreezing order rather than go to the Court of Appeal to appeal Justice Idris’ order which earlier froze the accounts.
SERAP accused Fayose of not only playing politics with the courts’ judicial powers but also squandering scarce judicial resources, and urged the National Judicial Council to urgently address a situation where politicians were exploiting the judiciary to obtain conflicting orders.
“Mr. Fayose can’t dangle the order obtained from Justice Taiwo Taiwo of the Federal High Court, Ado Ekiti as the ‘talisman’ to set aside an earlier order by Justice M.B. Idris of the Federal High Court, Lagos, as it is clear that they are courts of coordinate jurisdiction.
“SERAP believes that Mr. Fayose cannot use the order by Justice Taiwo to ward off the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission from carrying out investigation on allegations of corruption and money laundering against him, as this is not, at all, covered by Section 308 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) on immunity.
“The case of Uwazuruike vs. Attorney General of the Federation (2008) 10 NWLR makes it clear that the order of a court of coordinate jurisdiction like that of the Federal High Court, Ado Ekiti cannot affect the proceedings before the Federal High Court, Lagos.
“The persistent attempts by politicians to engage in forum-shopping by seeking the most favourable order to set aside an earlier order of a court of coordinate jurisdiction amount to a willful abuse of court process. Such practices if not stopped will have grave consequences for the rule of law and the integrity of the judiciary in the country.”
“Allowing the politicians to abuse the process of court and play politics with the judiciary tends to cast the judiciary in an unfavourable light, thus leaving judges at the mercy of the political class,” SERAP argued.
It added, “SERAP, therefore, advises the National Judicial Council not to allow politicians to continue to use judges to grant conflicting orders only for the politicians to turn around to accuse judges of corruption.”
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